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Thursday, May 21, 2015

Q&A with Peter Slevin

Peter Slevin is the author of the new book Michelle Obama: A Life. A former Washington Post reporter, he teaches at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Q: Why did you decide to write a biography of Michelle
Obama?

A: There were two things I wanted to do: first, to write
about her remarkable trajectory from the South Side of Chicago, a working-class
household, all the way to Princeton, Harvard, and the White House.

The second was to tell her story against the backdrop in
which she lived—the first generation of African Americans who came of age after
the Civil Rights movement—to chart what changed and what remained.

Q: How did you research the book, and did you talk to
Michelle Obama?

A: I haven’t interviewed her since the first presidential
campaign, when I interviewed her twice. I researched the family history and the
world she inhabits.

I talked to relatives of hers and the president’s; mentors
from her professional life in Chicago; Princeton and Harvard friends,
classmates and professors; White House staff members and former staff members.

I had the luxury of time. I read hundreds of thousands of
words Michelle Obama had spoken.

Q: Did anything you came across in your research change your
impression of her?

A: Many things deepened my impression of her. The self-doubt
she’s had in her life and her willingness to talk about it—times in a
majority-white environment, times on the campaign trail when she wondered if
she could get it all done. Speaking at Maya Angelou’s memorial service, she
described herself feeling lonely in Ivy League classrooms, and on the campaign
trail where her very womanhood was challenged.

Q: Do you know if the Obama family has read the book, and if
so, what they think about it?

A: I would love to know what they think, but I don’t know. I
sent copies!

Q: Michelle Obama is often in the news, but her recent
graduation speech at Tuskegee University got a lot of attention. What is your
impression of what she said, and why do you think it got the attention it did?

A: Michelle Obama gave a speech that was very true to
herself and her experience. In the speech, she pulled together many threads of
her life and her previous remarks. There was nothing really new, but she pulled
it together.

It reflected a message she’s giving—that she believes the
deck is stacked. She put herself in the story to show young African Americans
that this is not new, it’s not unfamiliar, and they should not let it stop
them. She’s been saying this for many years but sometimes people focus on
nutrition or fashion and don’t always pay attention to the deeper story.

The reaction speaks to a polarized country. Many would say,
What’s so exceptional about what she’s saying? It’s not a polemic. It shows how
quickly critics are prepared to pounce.

Q: What will Michelle Obama’s legacy be once she leaves the
White House?

A: My guess is that her legacy will have two broad themes.
One is how she delivered her message, the way she mastered the marketing of her
message—using humor, being very physical, hula hoops on the White House lawn,
skits on late night television—and the way she would sometimes avoid the
mainstream news media in favor of specific audiences she wanted to reach.

The other part is her message that we are living in a
grossly unequal society where too many people, not just people of color…simply
do not have the opportunity they should have. Her message is tied to policies she’s
worked on connected to childhood obesity and the lack of equality in
educational opportunity.

Q: She’ll still be only in her early 50s when the Obamas
leave the White House. What do you think she’ll do?

A: She’ll only be 53; she’ll turn 53 three days before.
She’s said she will continue to work on education policy…She will continue to
be a mentor; she has always been a mentor. She’ll need to decide how deeply she
wants to speak out on issues she cares about. It’s an open question.

Q: Are you working on another book?

A: I’m not. My head is still on this one. I loved working on
this one.

Q: Anything else we should know about the book?

A: I love the characters in the book. The characters beyond
Michelle Obama were so influential in her life—her family…her friends. It was
fascinating to explore the constellations of her relationships. It was
important to me that these characters be fully formed.

About Me

Author, THE PRESIDENT AND ME: GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE MAGIC HAT, new children's book (Schiffer, 2016). Co-author, with Marvin Kalb, of HAUNTING LEGACY: VIETNAM AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY FROM FORD TO OBAMA (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).